Fire: Chapter 10! Double digits, yay!

Sasuke: You're being too enthusiastic.

Fire: Two digits, yay!

Kakashi: Reviews will calm Fire down. (holds out a review)

Fire: Reviews, yay!

Sasuke: It's not working.

Fire: That's because I already reviewed. Yay!

Sasuke: (sighs) I'm leaving. (shunshins away)

Kakashi: No! Don't leave with— (sighs) Anything you want to say before we pull up the next chapter?

Fire: Fighting today. Mindless fighting, yay!

Kakashi: It makes sense with the storyline, right?

Fire: Yes! Now on with the story! (pulls up tenth chapter)

Kakashi: You haven't said that in a long time.

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Chapter 10: Strike of the Sakura

Kakashi felt an electric presence in the air as soon as they neared Oto no Sato. A tickle at the back of his mind whispered to him about darkness and nightmares. A grim hand gripped his heart and froze the blood within his body, and the atmosphere darkened about ten shades as soon as they stepped into the area surrounding the hidden village. He just hoped that it wasn't a bad omen about Sakura. Naruto and Sasuke were gone. She couldn't leave too!

However, the grey-haired jounin wasn't about to panic in the middle of their mission. He might just be playing mind tricks on himself. It might just be the worry in his chest playing with his mind, but as he looked over his shoulder at the other three members of his retrieval squad, he could see the unmistakable signs that they had felt it too.

"There's something wrong, Kakashi-sensei," Lee said, all signs of his crying when he had to leave Gai at the gates of Konoha gone. "The air is too dense."

Kakashi stared at the chuunin. At first glance, the jounin hadn't thought that the boy could be capable of such a serious sentence, but he had said it. 'This is no time to be surprised!'

"Uh...yes," Kakashi said, a little disturbed. Having a mini-Gai with him wasn't what he had in mind, but he couldn't have objected since Lee was on the official mission report. Besides, Kakashi hadn't really thought about whom he would bring as a fourth person. In truth, he hadn't thought about bringing a fourth person at all. There was really no one else he needed. Anyone would have been fine.

"What do you mean, 'yes?' We want to know what it might be!" Ino was shouting from Kakashi's side. "We might all get killed! You call yourself a jounin!"

And Kakashi couldn't help but give an inward sigh. He didn't know how Asuma managed to handle her.

From a little behind, the silent fourth member of their team sighed inwardly also. 'Mendokuse.'

"Kakashi-sensei!" Ino shouted again.

"Well, I don't know what it can be," the grey-haired jounin said with a nonchalant air. He really had no idea what it was, and he had no intention of telling them what he feared it could be.

"Nani?" Ino sounded even more annoyed than before.

"We're nearing the village now, so try not to yell like that or we're all going to seriously die."

Ino closed her mouth immediately.

Kakashi turned back to the path ahead of them. He wasn't just lying to stop Ino from yelling at him. They really were close now. Soon, he will get the chance to see if he really could convince Sakura to come back.

He just hoped that what Tsunade had said wasn't true.

They were preparing for the attack. Orochimaru and Kabuto had heard of it, and they had already sent people to Sakura's room to execute her. The Sannin had scrapped his plan as soon as he heard. It was too much of a liability to continue with that plan. He would just have to destroy Konoha without her, and that wasn't too hard. He was already planning to do that before Sakura came. It would have just been easier if he had used the pink-haired girl.

But the sound of fighting in the halls told the Sannin that the kunoichi was near. She was going to do what she had come to do. She was going to kill him, just as his many spies had said.

Sakura burst into the room, the cursed seal already marking half her body. She was trying to suppress it, but she didn't have the will that Sasuke had. There was no one here asking her to stop. There was no one here that she had to live for, except maybe everyone in Akatsuki, but after she killed them, there was nothing more.

"Ah...Sakura-chan, I was expecting–"

"Urusai, baka jiisan!" Sakura had had enough of his useless words. He was just like Sasori, and Sasori had just talked nonstop for the last half hour. She just wanted some quiet! "Sasori, kill him!" She shouted as pain shot through her body, arresting her muscles for a long moment.

"You want me to kill him, Sakura?"

"Don't argue with–!" Sakura felt the cursed seal bite through her arm and spread over the rest of her body. "Just do it!" She had already used a lot of chakra. It was almost time to stop.

"Just like a woman to have a man to do all the work."

"It's a gift. Think of him as a gift," Sakura said slowly through clenched teeth as she tried to keep herself on her feet.

"What do you mean, Sakura?" Sasori knew what Sakura meant, but she was obviously staggering in pain and he wanted to watch her suffer for a while longer. And it was funny watching her try to talk when her body wanted to collapse. He actually wanted to laugh.

"Kill him, baka!" Sakura had taken to calling him that over the last half hour. He didn't like to be insulted, but she couldn't think of any other way to provoke him. At least he knew when she was angry.

"You think he can kill me, Sakura-chan?" Orochimaru liked watching the drama unfold in front of him as much as Sasori did, but he wanted to kill her now. "Sasori-kun, step aside."

"Sasori-sama is under Sakura-sama's control. He's not going to obey your command, Orochimaru-sama!" Even Kabuto could see that. 'Maybe Orochimaru-sama needs a new body.' This body was already growing senile.

"I'm going to kill you too," Sakura said as her foot wobbled to the ground. The seal was slowly eating her body and she could feel it. "Kabuto." But no matter what, she was going to kill that man!

"Oh, I'm really scared. Sakura-sama's angry with me." Kabuto smiled at his own sarcasm.

Then, Sasuke fell on Kabuto from the ceiling. But Kabuto had stepped aside at the last moment. Sasuke had missed. Sasuke's kunai fell against the ground in a spray of broken rocks.

The Uchiha wasn't one for nonstop talking. That was what Orochimaru did before an important battle. He just wanted to kill his opponent, go home and train some more. That was his habit. That was what he did in order to kill his brother. Itachi was dead now, but he couldn't just break his habit so easily. At least that was what the summoning was telling himself, even as his body moved without his volition.

"Sasuke-kun?" Orochimaru was a little confused. He had thought that Sakura couldn't finish Edo Tensei. Sasuke definitely couldn't have taught it to her, but...there was one other person in this room who knew his technique. "Sasori-kun, how can you be so stupid?"

"I can't help it. She's so cute when she yells," he said sarcastically. He was lying about the cuteness of his master, but it was fun to see her annoyed.

And the sound of fighting in the halls finally stopped. The entire room filled with a stagnant silence.

"My puppets are free now. Do you want to see them? I've added quite a few to my collection since you left." Sasori was remarkably calm considering the angry tornado of hatred that spun within his resurrected body. "Ingrate!"

"You were useless after I've gotten what I wanted. Was that so bad?" Orochimaru had only left Akatsuki. It wasn't as if he had done anything particularly bad to Sasori, but the unspoken words were stronger than anything they might have to say to each other.

The main problem was that Orochimaru had left. He had come to Akatsuki looking for power, for more jutsu, for knowledge to further his research into kinjutsu. With Sasori's help, Orochimaru had created and perfected Edo Tensei. In fact, Edo Tensei was based off of one of Sasori's original techniques.

Orochimaru had seen Sasori controlling fighters who had died but still retained the abilities they had while alive. It was called hitokugutsu, and the pale man was interested in the technique. The Sannin had wanted to do that too.

Sasori had refused to teach that technique to him. It was annoying for someone who wanted to learn every jutsu that existed. So, he had to create his own, his spin off of that ability, so that it was like he knew it, because there couldn't be a technique that he didn't know. Knowing a technique that was similar was the only way to ease his annoyed mind. And as long as it wasn't really hitokugutsu, Sasori didn't care.

"If I had known you were going to leave, I would have killed you then," Sasori said as Orochimaru smashed a puppet sneaking up for a surprise attack. But it was only a weak puppet. Sasori didn't even flinch.

The battle began as the last of that smashed puppet landed on the ground. A hundred puppets appeared around Sasori as a hundred caskets holding a hundred summoned dead rose from the ground behind Orochimaru. Within another moment, the two armies were flying at each other.

Sakura watched, her body kneeling shakily nearby as ash flew through the air to reform broken bodies, and wood limbs flew to their proper places on the puppets. She had never seen anything like it before.

She hadn't known that Orochimaru had this many undead soldiers.

The puppetmaster and the Sannin still stared at each other in the fray. Their eyes were locked as Sasori sent his puppets through the bodies of ash and dirt. Even as they both watched their soldiers fight from the corners of their eyes, their gazes refused to break.

And at the last moment, as Sasori leapt towards Orochimaru, his puppets ramming through every summoned soldier that Orochimaru sent at him, Sakura had to marvel at the precision of his attacks. 'Did I really beat THAT?' The defence was impenetrable. His puppets didn't miss a single attack from Orochimaru even though his eyes were fixed on the Sannin. His shoulder blades flew forwards to gouge at any undead opponents who dared come close.

She could see why Sasori was stronger than Orochimaru, why Orochimaru was the weakest of the ten members of Akatsuki. Killing the Sannin should be no problem for him.

"Sasori-kun, you can't expect to defeat a Sannin," Orochimaru said as he caught one of Sasori's arms; the fist aimed for his face stopped.

The puppetmaster lodged his foot against the pale man's chest, tearing his hand and himself away. He knew about Orochimaru's love of battle dialogue, but Sasori didn't like talk. He grabbed the Sannin with his chakra strings and swung himself around to slice through the pale man with one of his wing-like shoulder blades.

But it was a kawarimi.

Sasori frowned at the reforming summoning. The Sannin had known that if he had used one of Sasori's puppets as a replacement, the puppetmaster would have known about it. However his summoned soldiers would just reform themselves. That was unfortunate.

'Senei Ta Jashu!'

Sasori felt over a dozen snakes wrap around his torso, pull him backwards. The puppetmaster winced as the snakes bit down on his arms. It had been a long time since he was in living flesh. He had forgotten about living, human pain.

"Twisted, isn't it? You don't even know if you're dead or alive!" Orochimaru laughed from his side of the room.

And it was true. As the Sannin smashed the Suna-nin to the ground, he wondered. His body. His human body or his puppet body? What did he have? What was no longer there?

'Kuso. I didn't even think–' He hadn't even thought that his body might not be the same one he had been using for the last few decades!

"Wh-what do you mean? He's dead," Sakura said shakily as she wobbled straighter only to have pain press her down again. She wished she could have done this. This was her battle. She should be the one to kill Orochimaru!

"Actually, I was sealed, not dead," Sasori said as his shoulder's blades ripped through the snake bodies coiled around him. Thick dark blood drenched his lower body before he leapt onto his feet again.

He felt around his chest. The cylinder was gone. He felt around his stomach. The stomach cable was gone. In fact, he had a real, human torso. He felt around his back. The apparatus holding his extra scrolls was gone.

"You sort of killed me when you summoned my soul into his new body. Thanks for that, by the way, Sakura," he said bitterly. He could have killed Orochimaru easily before, when he still had his puppet body, but now, he wasn't so sure.

"What? You want to be sealed forever?" Sakura glared at him. She couldn't even move, and he was making fun of her. She was using too much chakra. It would take at least a few more moments before she could move freely again. "Just kill him and stop complaining!" She was already giving him Orochimaru. What else did he want!

"No, but I would appreciate you using some of that strong will to suppress the cursed seal." Sasori wasn't blind, although he wasn't too sure about this girl. He had thought she was smarter when he first met her. She hadn't been trying at all!

Sakura stared at the Suna-nin, her mind running in circles around what he had said. 'Is he insulting me? What does he mean; I haven't been suppressing the cursed seal! Of course I haven't been suppressing it! I'm not Sasuke!' And she felt her mind switch onto the truth. She wasn't using her strong will. She wasn't trying hard enough.

Sakura pulled herself from the ground, her entire body still blistering from pain as blue and purple chakra swirled around her. Sasori was right. She wasn't using her will. "Sasori, step aside," she said as she walked forwards. She was going to kill Orochimaru, like she wanted.

Sasori only stared at her with an annoyed expression. He couldn't fight against his master's orders; his body was frozen where he stood. He should have known that she was going to take it back. "I still want him for hitokugutsu," he said as the girl stormed past him. "Don't destroy his body too badly."

But Sakura hadn't heard. "Orochimaru!" Sakura shouted as she rammed her fist through his chest. The sound of mashing bone and organs filled the entire room as the Sannin flew through several Edo Tensei summonings, a couple of puppets, then crashed into the wall.

But the Sannin was glaring at Sakura, grinning at her through bloodstained teeth.

The summoned dead headed toward Sakura. With speed and strength augmented by the seal's chakra, the girl smashed through them, her body headed unstoppably toward the Sannin. The sound of exploding ash and dirt vibrated through the air as each summoned minion met the kunoichi's gloved fist. They crashed into every corner of the room, sending a grey fog hanging in the air, until they all fell to the ground in a pile of ash.

"Die!" Sakura yelled as she grabbed Orochimaru, her eyes blazing with the anger of memory as she held him in her hands. He couldn't be a kawarimi. There was nothing to take his place. "Yarou!" But as her hands came together to crush his head, she felt nothing. There was no implosion, no impact.

'Nan Kaizo!'

"Nani?" Sakura's eyes widened as Orochimaru's arms and legs stretched, wrapping around her like many snakes. She had forgotten about this technique, this annoying technique that he had used back in the Forest of Death that day she met him. "Sas–" She pulled at the arm wrapped around her neck.

'Sasori!' And she was surprised. She had called for Sasori, not Sasuke. Why? Why had she done that!

But the Suna-nin had already run forwards, cutting through the reformed summoned soldiers that tried to keep him away. He had waited for her to call him. Until she did, he was stuck where he was, under the control of a master who was too stupid to see that it was a trick.

With a deft kunai, he sliced through Orochimaru's limbs. The man's face was turned away, busy watching Sakura slowly suffocate. He didn't even see it coming.

"Kuso! Sasori-kun, you traitor!"

Then, Sasori forced a kunai in Orochimaru's throat.

Sakura coughed spasmodically, her whole body shaking as she stuffed air back into her lungs. And when she looked up, Orochimaru lay dead at Sasori's feet.

Kabuto leapt back as Sasuke flew at him again. The Uchiha was obviously dead, and had been summoned from the afterlife, but that didn't make him any easier to fight. His Chakra no Mesu weren't having any effect. It was only because of his advanced healing abilities that he was able to survive at all.

The spectacled-nin held up his arms to shield his face from another katon as Sasuke's legs impaled him across the room. The wall smacked against Kabuto's back before he pushed himself out of the way of another attack. His arms were damaged. It was going to take another few seconds before he could use a technique.

But Sasuke wasn't going to wait for Kabuto. The dark-haired shinobi launched himself at the grey-haired man, his hand held out with a kunai shining in the dim light. Then, ash surrounded them.

At the opportunity which presented itself, Kabuto's hand shot out and caught the seal-marked arm before it could reach him. He wrenched the kunai from the mindless body before looking around. There was silence, complete silence where there was the sound of battle only a moment before.

'Orochimaru-sama!' Kabuto's black eyes caught onto the Sannin slumped on the ground. Orochimaru was dead.

To anyone other than a medic-nin, it might seem like Orochimaru had fallen for a moment, like he would rise again and dispose of Sasori. But Kabuto was a medic-nin. And he could see that Orochimaru was definitely dead.

Kabuto thought that he would be happy, or relieved that the Sannin was dead. But there was only horrified anger. With a single sweep of his arm, he slashed through the Sasuke summoning, rending him in half. The spectacled-nin ran through the severed body to Sasori. His former master had weak points. He knew that his former master had weak points. All he had to do was hit them with his Chakra no Mesu.

But the smile on Sasori's face...

Kabuto turned around to see Sasuke appear, a kunai aimed for his head. The Oto-nin fell back, the kunai scraping against his glasses. He raised his hand, ready for a counterattack. But Sasuke was gone.

The air caught in the spectacled man's throat, his mouth opening to gulp in air, but his chest refused to rise. He turned slowly to see the emotionless black eyes of his opponent, and the bent arm which held an embedded kunai in his back.

'Kuso!' Kabuto leapt away, his back distinctly registering the weapon stuck there. With a single motion, the shinobi painfully plucked the kunai out. He had used a lot of chakra healing himself from Sasuke's attacks. He couldn't keep it up. The wound in his back was already refusing to close. 'Chikusho!' Kabuto ran forwards. This was his last attack. He refused to die without trying. If he died, he would die fighting...for Orochimaru-sama!

"Baka." Sasori frowned as he sent a puppet crashing into the spectacled-nin's body. When it passed, Kabuto's severed head rolled to the ground.

"Did you have to kill him like that?" Sakura said, turning away at the sight of spreading blood. She didn't like Kabuto. She hated him. But she still didn't want to see such a horrible death. To die for a dead man...

Her eyes caught on the Sasuke summoning who stood motionless, his task accomplished.

...she could understand a little of what Kabuto must have felt.

"You feel bad for him?" Sasori couldn't believe what he was hearing, what he was seeing. It actually looked like Sakura felt bad for him, for a man who had hated her since the day he saw her, for a man who had tried to kill her. "Just like a woman to–"

"Sakura!"

The kunoichi turned, the puppetmaster's eyes already fixed on the apparition at the door. Grey hair and masked face turned to them from the hall. At his side, three chuunin stood. "K-Kakashi-sensei!" And the world lightened by their victory, suddenly darkened again.

End Chapter 10

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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:

It has been a long time since I brought up a useful tip for the proofreaders out there, so here's an important one. This is not just for betas. It's also important for writers to make sure they're writing emotions correctly. I know that emotions can be hard, so here's a good way to see if it's done the way you want it. Proofread in absolute silence. And I mean absolute silence. There cannot be noise. It's part of the answer to the question that plagues everyone's mind: why do authors have such strange schedules? That's because absolute silence can only be attained when no one is around. That means that the best time is in the middle of the night with really huge libraries being the second choice. Why absolute silence? The answer is simple. There are no distractions. When you're writing, use whatever you want as a muse. I listen to music because there's a rhythm to which I can type, but when I proofread, there cannot be sound. Music can influence what you feel and what you think. That can interfere with what the story is trying to say. A sad story isn't as sad if you're listening to fiesta music. You can't be sure if your writing is conveying the emotion correctly. The same goes for people talking or even the sound of traffic. To make sure that the story makes sense and to make sure that the grammar is correct, etc, it's important to devote your full attention to the story. That's all. It might sound crazy, but for people who get distracted easily and find it hard to proofread their work, this might help, as long as your parents don't yell at you for staying up all night.

Side note: The other part of the answer to why authors stay up all night is because it's easier to write at night. Your brain is more in tuned with your language centres. It's a psychology thing, and if you want me to explain it further I can do it in a PM (private message) because it'll be too long, and as a warning, it will have a lot of psychology in it so don't say that I didn't warn you. But, I can finish entire stories—that's with an average of 40 000 words per story, not including all the babbling, warnings or disclaimers!—in two nights if I sleep during the day. Now that is amazing! Just don't try it when you have exams. I do it only during the summer and weekends when my brain feels as if it's going to explode if I don't write it all down.

Fire's babbling:

Sasuke: Another chapter, another long English tidbit. Try to keep it down, Fire!

Fire: (sweats) Um…it wasn't that long, was it?

Sasuke: Yes, it was!

Fire: Hey…it's my story. I can do what I want!

Sasuke: It's half mine!

Kakashi: Why don't I own anything?

Fire: Baka!

Kakashi: (slumps) Are you talking to me?

Fire: I'm yelling at Sasuke.

Sasuke: Hey! I'm not a baka!

Fire: You're a brainless puppet.

Kakashi: Can I take Sakura home now?

Fire: Not yet. (turns to the audience) Review and tell me what you thought of this chapter. I know that the fight scene was a little strange but think about it. Orochimaru and Sasori used to be partners. That means that they know each other's fighting styles and what they're most likely to do. So in order to be effective against their opponent in a fight, they would have to think of ways to counter their main techniques. Orochimaru and Sasori have similar fighting styles. Orochimaru likes mid to long range fights. That's what he excels at since he prefers to use ninjutsu and kinjutsu techniques from afar. Whenever his enemies get close to him, he always gets hit! Ask me and I'll reference those for you.

Sasuke: (annoyed) Just get on with it! I want to leave!

Fire: Waah! Sasori first!

Sasori: I also excel at long to mid range attacks since I'm a puppeteer, but I have an advantage over Orochimaru. I also have my shoulder blades, which harms opponents who get too close. That's a short range technique that Orochimaru doesn't have. So, in order to defeat Orochimaru, I have to get close enough to use short range techniques since that is when the Sannin is at a disadvantage.

Fire: I was going to say that!

Sasori: Orochimaru has some use of taijutsu, but when it comes to that, I also excel at it. That means at in close quarter combat, I will win most of the time.

Fire: Enough explaining! I think we're confusing the readers!

Sasuke: Just tell them to review and we can go.

Kakashi: Review please so that Fire will finish the story.

Fire: I'm going to finish the story regardless!

Kakashi: Review please so that Fire will finish proofreading the next few chapters.

Fire: I'm just busy with other stories! Stop making it sound so dire!

Kakashi: Review so that Fire will stop yelling at me.

Fire: Well, ja ne! We'll see you next chapter!

Sasuke: You didn't ask them to review!

Fire: Kakashi did that enough.

Sasori: Call and tell me if you want to be a part of my collection. I'm currently—

Sakura: (smacks Sasori in the head) No one's that crazy!

Sasori: (holds his head) It wouldn't hurt to ask.

Sasuke: (closes the window) …

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